MUCH ADO ABOUT BLUE : Legend has it that about a century ago, French couturier Jeanne Lanvin was so transfixed by the heavenly blues in Fra Angelico’s frescoes in Florence that she gazed at them until her neck ached.

At which point she made blue a signature color, applying it to dresses, accessories, perfume bottles and her gobsmacking bedroom, a permanent attraction at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (which is celebrating the centenary of Art Deco this year, incidentally).

According to Lanvin , its founder developed 23 shades of blue at her dye factory in Nanterre, one of which was applied to the curtains and seats at the Daunou theater in Paris, one of many decoration projects done in concert with Armand-Albert Rateau.

Now the house has settled on a new proprietary color,

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